Yeah, bean paste is one of those things that takes some getting used to. I think it's something about the range of textures that are out there in the different things, and also that aside from pork-and-beans, most of Western food culture is completely not equipped to wrap its head around adding sugar to beans. Adding sugar to beans sounds like adding butter to tea on first thought - one of those omgWHY kinds of instinct-things. until you stop and think about how short the distance between cream and butter is and how the Brits are fairly tea-authoritative and add cream to tea all the time, that is. er. never mind? XD
Anyway, I totally get that it's not for everybody! (In fact, the reason I did the huge 12-hour cooking spree to start with was because my friend who loves white bean paste really doesn't like the red variety... everybody's tastes are different!)